Wednesday, June 1, 2016

The Prime Generation

This last weekend I finally fired up Amazon Prime on my little Roku thingymadingy, so I could finish watching "Justified" which is only available on Prime and Hulu. I have had a Prime membership since Amazon launched it really just for the free two day shipping. I will admit that I am one of those evil people putting the mom and pop shops out of business by ordering as much as I can online. Amazon is the easiest of the bunch for ordering and such, and I do have an Amazon credit card (hey 3% back folks!) but the Prime video was a chore, and the lack of an android app made it a waste of time compared to Netflix or Crackle. I hated how clunky it was to operate, and having to go out of the show you are in and maneuver to the next episode got on my nerves. I am here to report that this has changed, kind of.

While I give Amazon credit for making the effort I still wonder (aloud here obviously) why some episodes seamlessly continue onto the next and others pop up a graphic with up to a 15 minute countdown to the next episode. If that isn't a big enough pain in the rear you have to watch it because it may cut the episode that you are watching off up to 10 minutes in a few instances, and then guess what? You guessed it, back to the clunky way of getting back into the last episode and fast forwarding to get the end you missed. I notice while Justified and Deadwood did this a lot Boardwalk Empire does it a lot less. I still wonder why it does it at all. Netflix still holds the complete and utter edge on original programming and ease of use, so if you are asking yourself "Why not just do Amazon Prime?" DON'T DO IT! You'll be very disappointed.

I of course haven't cut the cord yet, but when it comes to revolutionary items of the 2010 generation, you have to admit, streaming media players have got to be up there. I couldn't live without my Netflix (and sometimes Prime Video) but if you haven't made that jump yet do yourself a favor and just buy a Roku. Everyone has a streaming player they will sell you but Roku is the only one I would endorse. It works great and they are always doing what they can to make it better. I have a Chromecast that I bought because it was cheaper, and I figured Google would do their best. Yeah it is crap. You have to control it with Android apps and if there is no app (Like Prime) then you ain't streaming it. It also doesn't work half the time, drops to very low quality often and when it decides it isn't going to work at all, be prepared to reprogram the app all over again. I have no opinion of the Fire TV because I haven't used one, and I don't do Apple. Feel free to tell me why I should use those devices, but again ... dance with the one who brought you.

I have been bouncing around online for just about 20 years, so I have been there and have done that. It doesn't mean I didn't like it and wouldn't do it again. As most humans, I am a social animal. To be a social animal on the internet it is social media that binds us all together. I prefer Google + and Twitter but have pages on the other ones that I ignore, so you probably should too.

My Blogging

I blog a lot. If you don't like people that blog a lot then I don't know how you got here to begin with. You may want to just move along.

Contrary to popular opinion I hate politics, but have political opinions ..

The easiest way to get under my skin is to apply the "all you talk about is politics" tag. This is a common knee jerk reaction some have when they see something political, and unfortunately I don't hold back sometimes. As a matter of fact, I share more about health, fitness and blogging than politics, which you would know if you weren't busy dismissing me. I actually follow and interact with more people that disagree with me than agree with me politically. The list of "other than politics" seems to be growing everyday and it probably looks a lot like this: